


Decisive Action

by IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Humor but also serious, Intelligent decisions, Jaune doing his one job, Logical Decisions, Mild Language, No holds barred, Rational decisions, Rwby meets common sense, Spoilers, at times - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-05-31 19:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6483490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow/pseuds/IFallLikeLeavesAndSnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which people occasionally stop and think about what they are doing, and the world is a better place for it. One shot's, AU's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One Job

For once, just _once_ he was going to do his damn job. He'd occasionally failed before -okay, he'd failed _a lot_ before- but this time the consequences of him screwing up would be a lot worse than a bad grade. Pyrrha was in some metal tank thing, Ozpin was messing around with it, and what appeared to be some kind of aura transplant was taking place. Judging from the looks of it, whatever it was that was happening was painful and-

Wait, he was looking at the machinery, which meant that he wasn't looking out, which meant-

Jaune turned just in time to see a black haired woman with a bow fire an arrow. Ignoring the question of _how the hell_ she got down there, his body leaped into action. A few months ago, he'd have been hard pressed to do anything about it with a full warning, but Pyrrha's personal training paid off. His leap put him right in the path of the arrow, and it shattered against his shield. The pieces glowed with an orange light, and began to flow around his shield, but stopped when they come in contact with his skin and, he realized, the white light of his aura. The inert pieces fell to the ground, and the woman, who by that point was much closer let out a harsh "what!" Her eye seemed to blaze with light, and a ball of fire formed in her hand.

And then Ozpin's cane shot into her stomach. The woman let out a gasp and doubled over. Then the cane blurred up and smacked her in the jaw, lifting her off her feet and sending her pinwheeling through the air. She landed on the ground but quickly rose to her feet. A wave of fire roared out of her as she snarled in fury, but Ozpin, with almost contemptuous ease, tapped his cane on the ground. A shimmering green shield enveloped him, which the fire slid off of uselessly. Before she could do anything else, Ozpin was in front of her, and she was on the floor with his cane pressed firmly against her head.

The room was still for a moment before the woman exploded. Waves of flames cascaded off of her skin, burning the ground black. Ozpin regarded her dully, as an experienced parent might regard a particularly naughty child throwing a temper tantrum. The woman rose into the air, her hair streaming behind her in a corona of light.

And then a familiar red and gold spear, coated in a light layer of red-orange energy slammed her through a pillar. Pyrrha Nikos, fresh from aura transference and brimming with half the Fall Maiden's power strode forward to do battle with the thieving witch, her footsteps leaving a smoldering trail in her wake. Picking herself up the woman scanned the room for anything she could use. The exit was cut off as by now Ozpin was blocking off that half of the room.

The woman, examining the flaming death before her, and the unstoppable force that was now blocking her exit, summed up her situation quite nicely.

"Fuck."

* * *

This time, Ozpin didn't hesitate. He didn't delay, didn't ask her for her opinion again, didn't do something incredibly stupid like _wait for her to say she agreed_ to something she _previously agreed upon_ in _the middle of a Kingdom destroying crisis_. He didn't do any of that. Instead he got her situated, flipped all the necessary switches, pressed all the buttons, and prayed to the gods that nothing would go wrong.

So when a glass arrow broke through Amber's pod and killed her because  _someone_ hadn't been doing their job, nothing happened. The woman who'd fired the arrow seemed shocked that she wasn't being flooded with power, and he decided to rectify that. So he shot her full of lightning. Green arcs of electricity burst from his cane as he pointed it at her. With half a Maiden's powers, she wouldn't be easy to take down, but on the other hand, _she only had half a Maiden's powers_  and he was the fucking head master. Ozpin gripped his cane tightly. Time to show the kids how it was done. But before he could do that, Pyrrha emerged from her pod, and in quite the short order, beat the crap out of the woman, who, it seemed, had grown rather lax in her physical training, because the red headed warrior proceeded to wipe the floor with her.

Ozpin sighed; there he was thinking that he'd get to do something physical for once. The castle rumbled and he was reminded of the tiny little assault raging outside. Right, he still had time to shine. As Pyrrha absorbed the rest of the Maiden's powers, and Jaune continued to gape, Ozpin headed for the elevators.

It was time to go win a war.


	2. The Importance of Education

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Education is important.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Crossoverlover232 for the idea.

"So you're saying I can go to Beacon?" Ruby Rose asked in amazement.

Ozpin was just opening his mouth to confirm this when the air cracked and the table split in two. Glynda's riding crop was gripped tightly in her hand.

"Of course not! You're only in your second year at Signal, it would be incredibly unsafe and _stupid_ " she leveled a glare at Ozpin "to bring someone as young as you into Beacon."

"Unsafe? Did you not see me kick those guys butts?" Ruby protested.

"I did," Glynda said with a nod "I also saw you fail to react to an obvious attack, if I hadn't been there you would've been seriously injured or worse."

"But my Semblance is speed, I would've gotten out of that fi-"

Glynda's riding crop came to rest lightly against Ruby's cheek in the time it took the silver eyed girl to blink. "Miss Rose your speed  _is_ indeed impressive, but it only matters when you use it, your reaction time is still too slow for you to utilize it properly."

"But I-"

"Furthermore, from what I've read of your files you still don't have full _control_ of your Semblance."

"I'm getting better at it." Ruby said defensively, pouting all the while.

"According to one of your teachers you got so excited during a race that you forgot how to use it, and then when you _did_ remember how to use it you kept crashing into things, and then when you tried to just outright run you collapsed soon after; your stamina needs a lot of work."

"I didn't do _so_ bad."

"You came in last place."

"I'm small for my age, they had an advantage in height!"

"One of them had a broken leg, and no crutches." Glynda said dryly.

"That's not fair! I'm pretty sure he was part rabbit faunus." The silver eyed girl grumbled.

Glynda sighed "Miss Rose, your combat skills  _are_ impressive, and Beacon is a wonderful place to study. When you're ready, we'd be glad to have you, however, even discounting the polishing your skills need, the fact remains that you can't simply skip two years of education. According to your transcripts, you're failing three classes."

"Those classes are boring," Ruby said sulkily.

"Those classes could save your life."

A confused look crossed the girls face. "Huh?"

"Miss Rose, what you learn at Signal isn't just boring claptrap that you won't need for your job; you're going to a combat school and as such  _everything_ you learn will be important, even the seemingly boring things. Besides, we  _do_ have a minimum GPA requirement for acceptance at Beacon you know, which you don't meet at the moment."

Ruby's face was the essence of terror. "Omigosh omigosh omigosh, I have to go home and study  _right now."_ And so saying the eyed girl dissapeared in a flurry of rose petals. Or she tried to as the door was still quite closed and still quite made out of a reinforced industrial polymer.

Glynda leaned over to look at the girl, who had slowly fallen out of the slight indent she'd made in the door. "Your situational awareness needs some work too."

Ruby groaned in pain before passing out.

And so it was that Ruby Rose remained at Signal where, with intense concentration, coffee, more than a touch of mania, and a hell of a lot of rose petals, she became the best student she could be which was pretty damn good indeed.

And so it was that Ozpin, denied a promising student, wheedled Ironwood enough to hand over one of his and so Beacon Academy received it's first transfer student.

And so it was that when Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee dust company, stumbled upon her unfamiliar partner her only reaction was a roll of her eyes and the question, "Can you fight?"

To which the other replied with a nod and a grin and the words "I am combat ready!"


	3. Scanning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the brain was conquered long before superfluous holograms.

The moment Yang explained what she'd seen in the arena, she was taken to a medical lab. Ruby following along behind her. Weiss and Blake were too busy arguing with people that _of course their teammate wouldn't do that_ , and until they got proof they wouldn't doubt her because _teammates trust one another_. Once there, she was told to sit under a large machine.

"Alright it'll take just a minute or two before we get the results." Doctor Chromascura said as he sat down in a chair next to them.

"Uh sir, what exactly is that thing doing?" Ruby asked.

"It's scanning for auricly induced neuro chemical imbalances in the brain, or lingering traces of foreign aura in her bodies auric baseline."

"Huh?" Ruby asked.

"It's checking to see if anyone whammied your sis."

"Oooohhhh, wait you can do that?"

"Well duh, of course we can."

"But I thought the brain was all complicated and stuff."

"Well it is, but I mean come on, we have Holographic receptionists, do you have any idea how superfluous those are? Do you think we'd put that much funding behind Holographics before we'd figured out how to properly scan the brain? And yes, we're not perfect, we dont know everything about the brain, but we can certainly scan it and check for anomalies. Welcome to the present my dear, where we have airship armadas, perfectly functioning artifical limbs, and yes, holographic receptionists.

"Well I guess that makes sense, but why do you have all this stuff here anyway?"

The doctor gave her a look "You're kidding right?"

Ruby continued to give him an inquisitive stare.

"Oh my god you're not kidding, what the hell are they teaching you kids these days?"

"Hey watch the language, that's my baby sister you're talking to." Yang cut in.

"Right sorry, anyway, aside from the fact that we're in a giant floating arena where superpowered teenagers fight each other with dangerously powerful weapons, and that can quickly lead to severe injury if their auras get too low?  There's the fact that, you know,  _cheating_ happens. I mean come on, we've been having this tournament for quite some time now, do you really think we've never met someone with a subtle Semblance trying to cheat before?"

"Ooooooooohhhhhh," Ruby said. The machine let out a  _beep_. 

"All done" the doctor said "And yep, it looks like someone  _was_ messing with your head. Now we just feed this data into the stadiums aura locator aaaaaannnndddd got it."

"Wait, we have aura locators?"

"Well yeah."

"But why don't we use those to track down criminals?"

"Because not all criminals have unlocked their Auras, and the technology works by projecting waves within a set perimeter, like triagulation. Also we need an initial scan of someone's Aura, which we got from everyone in the Tournament so we can properly measure your Aura levels. We also scan everyone going into the Coliseum in general. The relays also have to be connected and that takes a lot of power. Now if we're done with the questions, I think you should get the General and go pay a visit tooooooo," he held up a printed piece of paper, peering at the name "one miss Emerald Sustrai."


	4. Traveling Buddies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If one must let a magical maiden wander the world, one shouldn't let her wander alone.

When Amber finally reached the age that she could no longer be told no, the first thing she decided to do was travel. Ozpin, ever the vigilant watcher in his tower, declared that she should have a companion.

When Amber said she didn't need one, he helpfully pointed out that even though she could tell him no, she couldn't say no for what ever schmuck he got to tail her. So it was that Ozpin began looking.

It would have to be someone skilled, someone whose abilities would catch their enemies off guard. Someone who could get the taciturn young woman to open up, and most importantly, someone who she would have comedic dynamism with. But  _where_ would he get someone like that?  _What_ were the  _odds_ of him finding someone like that in time? Truely, the chances of him finding someone were  _so infintismally small_ that-

Being that no one was around to witness his mental melodrama, Ozpin ceased silently and dramatically questioning things and pulled out his list of adventuring companions. It shouldn't be too hard, after all he had an Academy full of them.

* * *

Gynda, for all that she was perfect for the role, couldn't go. Not because of her sternness, or her protective nature, but because without her around, Beacon would have to actually start  _paying_ for the structural repairs it required on a daily basis. Maybe they should've designed a sturdier place to train teen super soldiers.

Qrow, like Amber, was old enough to say no to him, and also he wouldn't want the man rubbing off on the girl. The last thing the world needed was an Alcoholic Maiden.

Port? No, just no.

Oobleck? Hmmmmmm, no.

The . .  Other faculty members that he was sure had names? Probably not a good idea.

A recent graduate then? Or one from the upcoming class?

Ozpin opened the student registry and began searching.

* * *

 

In one world, Amber the Fall Maiden went out alone into the world, and because of that, she was lost.

That didn't happen in this world however, because in this world Ozpin isn't stupid.

When Emerald Sustrai ambushed the Fall Maiden, she found herself faced with the task of tricking two minds instead of the anticipated one. The second mind was too much for the girl, and her illusion shattered. 

The maiden and her companion were instantly on alert. Their trap spoiled Emerald and Mercury attacked. As he drove at the Maiden with a flurry of kicks, she went for the man who accompanied her.

Her weapons were knocked from her hands with a casual swipe from the man. His weapon, a pitch black javelin that was crackling with dark electricity, was pointed at her chest. 

"I am Sable of the Black Javelin, and you will die this day." He intoned.

Emerald, confronted with certain death, did the only thing she could think of. She brought together an illusion of herself running and jumping over his head. With luck, she could get him to attack the Maiden while she retreated.

She made it two steps before a wave of dark lightning rippled from his javelin in a circle. The pain was excruciating, and it took mere moments before she succumbed to darkness.

Sable turned just in time to see Mercury get blasted by a swathe of electric energy emanating from Amber.

With her two minions down before she could do anything, the black haired leader didn't stand a chance. 

With the witch defeated and her strange Grimm creature housed safely in a jar, the two warriors decided unanimously to return to Beacon.

Ozpin had to be told. 


	5. Bullying a Dragon's Friends.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cardin Winchester should know better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to CJ304 for the idea. The title is ripped from the trope Bullying A Dragon.

The room grew incredibly, painfully silent as Cardin finished speaking. As one, the collective student body glanced between Cardin and the members of team JNPR. Then they left the room at speeds that would've made Ruby feel deeply inadequate.

Somehow, the lumbering wall of dumb meat that was Cardin Winchester had gotten it into his head that he should insult and bully both Jaune and Velvet. The team had grit their teeth at their friends behest when it was simple words and shoves, but this time he took it too far. Velvet he tried to punch, but the faunus girl was simply too fast for him. She leaped over him and left the cafeteria.

Jaune on the other hand wasn't nearly fast enough, and the mace wielder succeeded in kicking the boy in his chest. 

Then he proceeded to insult the injured teen as best he could.

At that point the other students -sensing an imminent and destructive explosion- vacated the premises like the end of the world was about to be unleashed.

To be fair, they weren't too far off.

"Jaune" Pyrrha said lightly " I know you don't really like it when other people try to fight your battles for you."

"But that's going a little too far" Nora said, uncharacteristically serious. "Any suggestions?" She asked.

Ren stood with the rest of the group, who had formed a loose triangle around the bully. Then, glaring at the brunet he said "Let's break his legs."

Jaune, throughout all of this, laid on the ground, trying to get his breath back. And because he couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak, and because he couldn't speak, he couldn't tell the others to leave the bully alone.

And so team JNPR minus the J proceeded to beat the crap out of Cardin.

* * *

Hours later, after a trip to the nurse and a metric ton of advanced medication, Cardin, his legs newly mended, was making his way through the school. 

He had almost reached the safety of his room, when a young man with milky eyes stepped in his way. A wall of solid muscle that made  _him_ seem small by comparison stepped behind him. A girl dressed to the nines walked past the milk eyed boy.

She strode up to the bully and gave him a once over. "Dang Velv this is it? The big bad bully? She could totally wipe the floor with you."

"Huh?" Cardin questioned.

"Look" the girl said with a sigh "Velv's been really big on the whole 'don't beat the shit out of him' thing when it comes to you, but frankly, we've decided that in this instance, we know what's best."

"Eh?"

The girl, instead of giving him an answer, merely kneed him in the crotch. As he collapsed, she swung her purse, very very lighlty, into his face.

He was caught by the wall of muscle, who looked down at him with a grin.

Cardin whimpered

* * *

Hours later still, a battered Cardin Winchester was dragged from his bed by a telekinetic grasp. He soon found himself, bleary eyed and aching in front of a frowning Glynda Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin.

"Mister Winchester, it has come to our attention that you have been bullying several students, what do you have to say for yourself?"

The only sounds that came from the young man were sobs.


	6. Firewalls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which firewalls and system scans exist.

The Inter Continental Transmit System is the single most important piece of communication technology on the planet. Without it, the four kingdoms would be unable to coordinate, unable to call for help, unable to do anything at all outside of their borders. Such a valuble and irreplaceable piece of technology is therefore zelously guarded and it has the best defense system money can buy and modern tech can create.

It took approximately three hours for the program labeled "Black Queen" to be discovered. It took fifteen minutes for every trace of it to be routed out. After that it was scanned fully and a Trojan file of the Trojan file was placed back into the system.

"Honestly, it's like they expect us to have never heard of sabotage and hacking or something." General Ironwood remarked. "What's next? Thinking we've never heard of cheating?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Stephen. This one will be updated with the other prompt you gave to me once I rewatch that episode.


	7. A Thing For Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Qrow isn't good with names, that's why everyone gets a nickname, but he's great with faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Stephen

Qrow Branwen didn't become one of the best hunters in all of Remnant by being an alcoholic. His mind, when not drowning under an oceans worth of booze, was a rather sharp thing.

  
It would've been difficult to be Ozpin's personal spy if he wasn't. 

So even though he was a  _touch_  tipsy, he still had his wits held loosely in his hand. And no matter how drunk he was, he always had a thing for faces.

It was as he was playing around with Winter that he saw a face in the crowd. 

A very familiar face.

A face that was burned forever into his mind. It was a face that evoked failure, and sadness and rage. Sidestepping out of their battle, Qrow moved forward with all the speed he could muster. The silver haired youth didn't know what hit him. Burning through a bit of his aura to sober himself up, he double checked.

There was no doubt, it was him. The boy from that day. If he was around, then chances were the girl was as well.

And if the minnows were gathering, then a big fish was probably hiding in the water nearby.

Winter was yelling at him, which he ignored. The rest of the group had to know, and luckily for him, they were already here. 

He held the limp youth up and presented him to Ozpin and the others.

"It's him" he said. 

Ozpin's eyes narrowed "Tell me everything." 


	8. Fractured Fairytale

Her mother always loved stories. Tales of heroic men and women striking down the forces of evil, of bold knights and hunters, standing stalwart against the darkness, illuminating a better future. They were her favorite stories growing up, a source of inspiration. And she never lost that inspiration, never lost that drive, it only grew stronger as she trained, as she learned and fought.

She was born for battle.

And now here she is, living a story, but the ending doesn't seem like it will be a happy one. Ozpin is gone, and the woman is still standing. Everyone else is busy fighting the Grimm and the Atlas troops. There is only her. She hopes Jaune will be safe. The top of the tower is approaching. She closes her eyes and focuses. There can be no Jaune. There can be no attack. There can be nothing but this, nothing but the battle. Her opponent is good enough to beat or trap Ozpin, no distractions are allowed.

She remembers her lessons. If you must engage an opponent with superior power, you must do it carefully. Surprise is her friend. The bell dings and she briefly contemplates sending Miló at her foe but decides against it. Never relinquish your weapon or shield unless the advantage outweighs the risk. Against someone with overwhelming power releasing Akoúo̱ would be foolish, tantamount to suicide.

She sends the doors instead. The woman is caught off guard, and her vision is blocked by the metal. A blast of fire sends the door careening back, but she has long since moved. It takes the woman a few seconds to catch sight of her again, and by then she has already moved in close. Beacon teaches that you should take care with human opponents, least you unduly create negative emotion and attract the Grimm. That is no worry now, and her opponent is hardly human in any way that counts. Her mother and father knew the dangers of humans and of the necessity of a killing blow. She cannot risk her friends or her family. There will be no mercy.

Miló shifts from spear to Xiphos as she slashes directly at the woman's exposed arm. It strikes true, but slides off of the woman's aura. A wave of flame erupts at her and she dives to the side, Akoúo̱ held to deflect the flame. The table obscures her form and she uses its temporary cover to yank a gear from the room and send it at the woman, forcing the blunt edges into crude points. It strikes and pushes her a few feet away. She has time to emerge from cover, rising through the air above her foe once again. Miló once more a spear, she jabs at the woman's collar bone. The dress is laced with dust, she can tell that, but none of it is defensive, instead focused entirely on firepower. Powerful, but foolish.

Her spear pierces deeper this time, but is still deflected. The woman's hands reach up to grab her and she bashes her face with Akoúo̱. Then she is flipping away and sending more gears at her enemy as she does so. The woman snarls as she flips and sends bolts of fire at her, but they deflect off of her shield as she lands. She holds her ground only until the fire is gone and then she is moving. The wall cracks under the pressure as she kicks off and slams into the woman, sending them careening through the air. She feels heat press at her aura, but she has plenty to use, having dodged everything thrown at her so far. Never take a hit unless you have to, that was one of the first things she learned. The woman blasts her shield with flames once more, a veritable torrent of them. She lets it push her back, and then Miló comes back to her by way of trying to run the woman through. She put quite a bit into that, and is pleased to see that there is a thin scratch in the woman's skin. Rifle shots show that she can still deflect bullets though. She sends a storm of small sharpened gears towards her, and in the scant few seconds that buys her, she moves again.

She thinks about the wound, and what it means. It managed to break through her defense, meaning that said defense isn't innate. Her opponents shield is consciously maintained, which means she has to focus on that, and it constantly drains power when in effect. She likely wont be easy to injure now. She can see that the small wound has already healed. She'll need to surprise her with something to break through for the killing blow. Still, there are other ways to fell her enemy. She's had plans saved up for years on how to deal with any number of hypothetical opponents, and she thinks of one that she never thought she'd have to use. Yes that plan should work, she thinks, and quietly sets to work. Her enemy is strong true, and her defenses are high, but they're entirely reliant on her actions. If she's distracted, unbalanced, her form weakens and her shields become less stable. The important thing is that she isn't invulnerable. She can bleed.

And she can die.

She sends a chunk of metal up into the air as she dashes from cover, and as expected, her opponent immediately shoots at the metal, expecting an aerial attack by now. She jabs at her unprotected stomach, trying to pierce her. The blade slides, sinking deeper and deeper as it does so, but still fails to penetrate her foe. She grabs at her leg and swings herself around, kicking her head before wrapping her hands around her throat as Miló continues trying to gut her. The fire grows bright, surrounding her with an aura of flame, but she bears it. She can feel Miló making headway. This woman managed to fell Amber with an arrow, the Maidens power's don't make one untouchable. The fiery thief tries to burn her, but her aura holds strong. Narrowed focus has killed more Huntsman than Grimm alone, so she makes sure to maintain constant awareness of her surroundings.

She notices the dragon coming at them. Judging by its angle, it will only graze the tower.

She can use that.

She twists, and pulls them back towards a gear, which she then kicks off of. They go flying, and then she lets go and kicks off of the woman, sending her through the window, which bends behind her, letting her out safely. She floats for less than a second before the dragon hits her. She watches through the window as the dragon cries out in pain as a wave of flame explodes from it. The woman comes racing back, fire snapping at her heels and she crashes through the windows.

She is already gone of course. The room is in ruins, and the heavy gears which were too strongly fastened to whatever Ozpin used to suspend them from the ceiling are now free. The metal all around them is ripe for the picking, and her plan is almost ready. The woman gushes flame, it pours from her in waves. It is a waste of energy. She is waiting, just out of sight on top of a floating gear. She can't see the woman very well, but now she can sense her, sense the metal flakes on her skin, even as they melt.

"Where are you hiding!" She demands, and as her enemy talks she focuses every bit of metal not on her into a point. It rises around the woman, and she screams and explodes in a fiery column. It doesn't matter, her semblance can work with liquid metal, and she's hardly hindered her attack, if anything the flames made the sharpening of the metal quicker. Now honed to truly fine points, the gears, large and small, break apart, and a storm of metal engulfs the woman. It lasts for a few seconds before, with another scream and burst of fire, the woman emerges wreathed in flame.

"Do you think this will stop me? Do you think you can _win?_ " She shrieks these words into the air. "I will ne-never stop, I am _destined_ for- for greatness!" Her words are coming out breathier now, and her talking only helps things along. "Wha-whats going on? I can't- I can't breath." It comes out at a whisper. She can hear the sound of rasping, struggling breath. The sound continues on for another few seconds, and then it falls silent. She sends metal flying at the woman, and short flickers of fire disrupt its path. She does it again and again and again, and each time the fires are weaker. Eventually they stop, and the metal finds its mark. She inflicts numerous small wounds, and then she sends a large chunk to cut off her arm. It strikes home, and it is then that she knows that she's won.

The woman's eyes are open and aware of what's happening, but they aren't lit by that fire anymore.

She stands at a safe distance, and for the first time in their fight speaks "Do you believe in destiny?"

The woman nods. This is risky, but necessary, she has to keep her foes thoughts on her.

"From an early age, I have been told that I was special, that I was destined for great things. I have spent every day of my life trying to live up to that, and now, I think I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to stop you, to stop _this_." She looks at her fallen foe "You have caused so much destruction, so many _deaths_." Her eyes narrow " You were my greatest foe to date, but if there's one thing I've learned from being called the invincible girl, it's that there's no such thing. You might be powerful, you might have almost unbreachable defenses, and you might heal incredibly quickly, but in the end you're only human, and you still need to breathe."

The woman's eyes widen in understanding, and then Akoúo̱, carefully sharpened to an incredible point on one edge, slices through the air and the woman's neck. The world is silent for a moment, and then it explodes in light. There is pain, such unimaginable pain, like her skin is peeling and her bones are cracking and there's fire in her veins. Then it's over, and she can feel it all. Every bit of metal all around in a way she didn't before, her semblance augmented to new heights. She can feel the rest of the building beneath her feet, feel the gears all around, and feel the metal dust that she used to block the woman's throat and lungs.

Her limbs feel strong, and her mind is clear. There is nothing to fear in the full power of a Maiden. There is still much to do, the robots are easy prey for her abilities, and the Grimm must be routed and destroyed. And of course once it is all over, she must talk to Jaune. A roar breaks through her thoughts. It appears that the dragon is still alive and wishes for a fight. This she can do. It's great wings flap and send huge gusts of wind toward her back. The metal around her shifts in accordance to her thoughts and she grips Akoúo̱ and Miló tightly as she readies herself for another fight.

And so the Knight come Maiden, the Witch dead at her feet, turns to do battle with the Dragon at the top of the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I really love this concept. Like a lot. And also it made me realize the bizarreness of the ending of Volume 3 through a fairytale trope point of view. The Maiden, who is also the Witch, fights and kills the Knight at the top of the Tower, and is allies with the Dragon. Isn't that just weird? And yet also really cool and now I want a book about that.

**Author's Note:**

> More to come.


End file.
